Being confident in sharing our hope
One of the greatest challenges for us today is feeling confident, or even comfortable, sharing our faith with others. It doesn’t matter who you are or how long you’ve been a Christian: there is nearly always a sense of nervousness in opening our mouths to say something about Jesus, whether at home, at work, or with our neighbours.
The apostle Peter addresses this fear directly in his first letter, written to believers facing real persecution and ridicule for following Jesus. It’s in that context, suffering coming even to lawabiding, good citizens, that Peter reminds his readers of their hope, and how to share it.
1 Peter 3:13-22 (NLT)
“Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!
Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but He was
raised to life in the Spirit.
So he went and preached to the spirits in prison, those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honour next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept His authority.”
It is worth noting that in the UK and Ireland, we do not suffer in the same way that many still do today for following Christ. Recall the testimony of Hea Woo, a Christian imprisoned for her faith in a North Korean labour camp: a sobering reminder of what it costs some of our brothers and sisters simply to believe, and of how God is at work even there. Stories like hers should encourage us to press on, whatever our own fears about sharing our faith closer to home.
Across 1 Peter, the apostle shows us both the content of our hope, what it is, and how to have confidence in sharing it, how we do it. Let’s take each in turn.
The content of our hope
First, Peter reminds us that our hope is in a suffering Saviour. If you suffer for standing up for Jesus, or for seeking truth and honesty in a workplace where lies are common, Peter’s response is to take us to the cross. When life hurts, or is going well, in joy or sorrow, in life or death, it always makes sense to go to Jesus: “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but He died for sinners to bring you safely home to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Our own suffering is never on the same scale as His.
The word Peter uses for “suffered” means He suffered instead of us, in our place. As Ed Clowney writes in The Bible Speaks Today, “Our willingness to suffer for Christ is rooted in the fact of His willingness to suffer for us.” Peter makes the same point about the cost of our redemption in His opening chapter, echoing Isaiah 53: “It was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (1 Peter 1:18-19). If we want to share our hope with others, we may first need to rediscover our own hope in the cross of Christ.
Second, Peter declares that our hope is in a risen and reigning Lord: “He suffered physical death, but He was raised to life in the Spirit” (3:18). It is the resurrection, alongside the cross, that Peter turns to first in his letter: “In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Peter 1:3-4, NIV). Whatever is unfolding in our world, a pandemic, war, a cost-of-living crisis with no end in sight, that hope still holds, because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory. Jesus is risen, and Jesus is reigning. But our hope is not yet complete.
Third, Peter encourages us to put our hope in a returning King: “This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-6, NIV). My eldest daughter, Keren, asked me the day after Russia invaded Ukraine why all this had to happen in her lifetime. I reminded her of Gandalf’s words to Frodo, from a book we both love: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring). In a world growing in anxiety, teaching and understanding the reality of Christ’s return is vital, both to our hope and to how we live differently because of it.
Confidence in our hope: how do we share it?
If Peter is clear about the content of our hope, the question still remains: how do I share it? Here are seven pointers, drawn from 1 Peter 3.
Be eager to do good (v.13). Words unaccompanied by action can lack power, or even suggest hypocrisy. In Counties’ recent book Making Jesus Known Today and Tomorrow, Beverley Bedford writes: “To relate to people, we have to identify with them, walk alongside them, journey together with them… Jesus didn’t separate the ministry of compassion and mercy from the ministry of proclamation” (page 157).
Don’t be afraid (v.14). As a young man, I remember the butterflies before I first preached and shared my testimony. I asked an older mentor, Walter, when the nerves would stop. “That’s the day to stop,” he told me: nerves are simply a reminder to depend on Jesus. Fear is human, but God offers boldness if we ask for it. As Bob Telford puts it in the same book, “Every public speaker gets butterflies in their stomach, but in the experienced preacher, they fly in formation” (page 125).
Be worshipful (v.15). Peter’s alternative to worry is worship. Pray, focus on Jesus, and the Gospel becomes the overflow of a settled heart rather than an anxious one; worship is a great antidote to worry.
Be ready (v.15). Being ready means preparing: reading and learning Scripture, training, praying for opportunities, and taking them when they come. Why not sign up for the Connect Evangelist Training Programme? We’d love to help you prepare to share Jesus.
Be gentle (v.16). Winning an argument can mean losing a person, as I learned in my youth, arguing someone into a corner rather than winning them over. I left that conversation determined to be winsome, even when my own arguments were weaker than I’d have liked. John Lennox illustrated this beautifully in a recent conversation with Stephen Bartlett on his podcast, Diary of a CEO. Bartlett told him: “One of the most compelling arguments for God that you’ve presented… is actually you. You have a certain peace and contentment that I rarely see in people I interview, but I often see in the Christians I’ve interviewed.” What a reminder to be gentle.
Don’t be surprised (v.16-17). Doing the right thing is no guarantee of an easy life. It is better to suffer for following Jesus than for a sinful lifestyle, whatever the world may think of us for it.
Be expectant (v.22). Christ has gone to heaven, seated in the place of honour, with all authority accepted by angels, authorities and powers. As Jesus reminds us in the Great Commission: “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations… And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
So let’s go. All authority is His, and until He returns, our work here is not done. May God give us confidence as we share the Good News wherever we go this week.